A message that is paid for by a corporation or organization in order to spead their message via traditional media channels. Examples of advertisements would include a glossy magazine advertisement or an outdoor billboard.

Sometimes used interchangeably with a PR plan, a PR campaign lays out a series of promotional activities designed to accomplish a specific goal or set of goals. A typical PR campaign usually lays out the intended audience, goal, objectives, strategies, tactics and a timeline.

The act of a PR practitioner taking the initiative to achieve the outcome they desire, whether it be a feature story or profile that positively highlights a company, organization or individual in the media. The opposite of reactive.

Public relations is the creation of tactics that are developed to maintain communication between a company or organization and its publics. The process of public relations works to elicit favorable publicity and media coverage for a person, event, product or cause.

Web applications that encompass the sharing of information, user-generated content and community collaboration, rather than just the passive viewing of content. Examples would include social networking websites, Wikis and blogs.